7 Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something. --Geoff Dyer

10 Remember, if you sit at your desk for 15 or 20 years, every day, not ­counting weekends, it changes you. It just does. It may not improve your temper, but it fixes something else. It makes you more free. --Anne Enright

6 The most purely autobiographical ­fiction requires pure invention. Nobody ever wrote a more auto­biographical story than "The Meta­morphosis". --Jonathan Franzen

5 Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. --Neil GaimanCurrent Mood:nerdy

Thanks for linking this. There's some very insightful and witty stuff! And a clear divide between the writers who are simply thinking "this is how I write" and those who're thinking "my rules don't work for everyone but here are some guidelines that might help people."